1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of equipment used to sever downhole members, such as production tubing or other tubular conduits, as well as wirelines, control lines, vent lines, and other longitudinal members which may be run in the well external to the tubular conduit.
2. Background Art
In many applications in oil or gas wells, a tubular conduit such as production tubing is run into the well bore with a bottom hole assembly attached. The bottom hole assembly may have a wireline, control line, vent line, or other longitudinal member attached to it. Typically, this wireline, vent line, control line, or other such longitudinal member will be run externally to the production tubing. Such longitudinal members will be referred to as external longitudinal members herein. Often, there may be several such external longitudinal members run into the well bore along with, and external to, the production tubing or other main tubular conduit.
In some circumstances, it becomes necessary to cut or sever the main tubular conduit at a point downhole, and to pull the tubular conduit back out of the hole, leaving the severed lower portion of tubular conduit, and the bottom hole assembly attached thereto, in the well bore. This also necessitates the cutting of the external longitudinal members, preferably without a separate operation for running specialized cutting equipment into the well bore. It is also desirable to be able to cut the wire line, vent line, or control line somewhere downhole as close as possible to the point at which the tubular conduit is cut, to salvage as much as possible of the external longitudinal member and keep the well bore as open as possible.